


Chasing Away the Christmas Blues

by Bellaromanza



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, Sappy, Seasonal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-28
Updated: 2012-01-28
Packaged: 2017-10-30 06:31:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/328803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bellaromanza/pseuds/Bellaromanza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny is depressed, knowing he can’t get a Christmas gift for his daughter to match Step-Stan. Steve shows him that love is the best gift of all. (and there's a fuzzy surprise)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chasing Away the Christmas Blues

Danny gazed at the towers of toys at the local Toys R Us and sighed. He couldn’t compete, not with Stan’s money. He fucking hated the holidays, especially since Rachel had married money, and Gracie had everything she could ever hope for.

“Hey, Danny! What about one of these bug eyed dolls? They seem top be pretty popular,” Steve called, holding up a ‘Bratz’ doll and making Danny laugh.

“Yeah, maybe. And ixnay on the ugeyed-bay in front of the ildren-chay,” he said, tilting his head towards a couple of girls about Grace’s age that were glaring at Steve.

“Pig-latin, Danny? Really?” Steve asked with a grin, tucking the ugly little doll beneath one armpit. He’d already learned that if he had a gift idea, but he put it down to think about it? It would disappear like MRE’s in front of a starving SEAL.

“Come on, Mr. Chuckles,” Danny said, not hiding a smirk. He was glad that Steve had invited himself along. The man, if nothing else, was amusing as hell.

“What does Gracie want?” Steve asked as they wandered down another ginormous aisle of toys.

Danny shrugged helplessly. “She keeps saying that I’ll know it when I see it. Which is less than no help.”

“She sounds like she’s channeling Buddha,” Steve quipped.

“Har har.”

Steve stopped Danny in the middle of the aisle, frowning at the bitter pseudo laugh. Now that he was looking, he noticed the dark circles beneath Danny’s eyes and the lines that dug a little deeper along his mouth. Danny was taking the whole Christmas gift for Grace really hard.

“Danno,” he said softly. “It doesn’t ~matter~ what you get Gracie. She’ll love it because it’s from you. You moved to this “pineapple infested hellhole” for her, remember? She knows that you love her, believe me, and she won’t care if you get her a stick of candy, it’ll be the best candy ever because it’s from you.”

Danny’s eyes stung and he rubbed them impatiently, unwilling moved by Steve’s little speech. He knew Steve had ‘Parent Issues’, and understood that Danny was deathly afraid of screwing his baby up because of the divorce and everything else.

“Yeah, okay,” he agreed, smiling up at his partner, and his breath stopped at the look in Steve’s eyes. The fond affection, yeah, he felt the same way, but the love, that was something he’d not seen before and he wondered how long it had been there and how he had missed it.

“Some detective you are,” Steven agreed wryly with Danny’s inner monologue. He leaned down and Danny tilted his head, eyes on Steve’s lips, when a loud huff sounded behind them.

“Excuse me, but you are in my way,” a large Hawaiian woman wearing the loudest muumuu Danny had ever seen, stood scowling. Her shopping cart was completely full, and Danny was envious because apparently she didn’t have a problem with making choices.

“Sorry, ma'am,” Steve said respectfully. “We were just leaving.”

Danny was feeling a little emotional whiplash and was less gracious. “Yeah, yeah. Just busy falling in love here, sorry to throw a wrench in your shopping.”

“Danno,” Steve laughed and grabbed Danny’s hand, pulling him down the aisle. “C’mon, I know the perfect gift for Gracie.”

*~*

Grace had her eyes covered and was practically quivering in excitement. Danny was sipping his coffee, watching Steve fondly as he wrestled the gift into the living room.

“Okay, honey,” he said, and barely had gotten the words out when Gracie squealed and the German Sheppard that they’d rescued from the pound met Grace in the middle of the living room, tail wagging so hard that it was a blur and licking Grace all over her face.

Steve moved over to Danny, slipping an arm around the shorter man’s shoulders as Grace and the dog, not quite a pup but old enough not to chew everything, got acquainted. He already had a former Navy dog-handler ready to teach the new dog its manners, and to protect Gracie at all costs.

“Thank you, Danno! Thank you Steve!” Grace came up and wrapped her arms around both of them, the dog sticking its nose between her and their legs and wagging so hard that their legs were getting beat.

“You’re welcome, Monkey,” Danny said, kissing the top of her head. “It was Steve’s idea.”

“Thank you!” she said again, pulling Steve’s t-shirt so that he bent down and she kissed his cheek. “Can I name him?”

“You bet, kiddo,” Steve said, rubbing the dog’s head. “What did you have in mind?”

Grace stepped back and frowned at the dog thoughtfully.

“Sit,” Steve ordered and the dog obediently plunked its bottom down, tail still going madly.

“Ohh,” Grace smiled. “How about SEAL?”

Danno hid a chuckle behind his coffee cup, while Steve just grinned.

“But what if I answered instead? I think we’d get confused,” he replied.

“Good point,” Grace said, her lips pursed as she looked her dog over.

The dog had the typical Sheppard coloring, and it looked to be a purebred. They’d only had him for a couple of days, but they’d discovered that he was smart as well. He would go to the door and bark once when he needed to be let out, and after Steve had shown him the boundaries, had never strayed outside of them so they’d not needed the leash since.

“How about Cocoa?” Grace asked.

“Short and sweet. I like it,” Danny said and Steve nodded.

“Cocoa it is,” he said. “Cocoa, come,” he ordered and the dog tilted his head, like, ‘Are you talking to me?’

Danny grinned when Steve snapped his fingers to his side and Cocoa came over like a shot. “Look at that, Steven, he learns quickly. Are dogs smarter than SEAL’s?”

Gracie giggled at the look on Steve’s face, and then shrieked when Steve grabbed her to tickle her. Danny could only grin as Cocoa jumped up and tried to lick both of their faces. Grace’s happiness, and Steve’s love were the best gifts he’d ever received.

~fin


End file.
